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Biden’s Green Transition May Usher In More Energy Insecurity. Here’s How
- The Biden administration has pushed green energy in the wake of the Ukraine crisis — saying it would ensure U.S. energy independence — but has failed to address foreign mining and refining dominance, according to industry leaders.
- A so-called green transition would shift dependency from fossil fuel resources like oil, natural gas and coal which are abundant in the U.S., to critical minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, graphite and zinc which are largely mined and refined by China, Russia and other foreign powers.
- “The focus on renewables, in essence, is a license to trade what dependency we may have had on the Middle East with an almost exclusive dependency on Communist China for the materials and the processing,” Institute for Energy Research President Tom Pyle told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.
The administration has argued that renewable energy technologies, like solar, wind and electric vehicles, aren’t dependent on fossil fuels and would lead to lower costs for consumers over the long term, a line of argument that Democratic lawmakers have also parroted in recent days. On Wednesday, the average price of gasoline nationwide reached $4.25 per gallon as of March 9, the highest level in history and more than 52% higher than a year ago, according to AAA data.
When asked about energy independence on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki similarly said transitioning away from fossil fuels would alleviate high energy costs faster than building the canceled Keystone XL pipeline.
However, a so-called green transition would shift dependency from fossil fuel resources like oil, natural gas and coal which are abundant in the U.S., to critical minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, graphite and zinc which are largely mined and refined by China, Russia and other foreign powers. Such minerals are essential for the production of electric vehicle batteries, battery storage facilities, solar panels and wind turbines, according to a 2021 International Energy Agency (IEA) report.
“The data shows a looming mismatch between the world’s strengthened climate ambitions and the availability of critical minerals that are essential to realizing those ambitions,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said after the report was released. (RELATED: Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation To End US Reliance On Chinese Minerals)
The average electric car needs six times more mineral resources than a conventional car while a single onshore wind turbine plant requires nine times more minerals than a typical fossil fuel plant, the IEA report showed. A single offshore wind farm needs a whopping 8,000 kilograms of copper to produce one megawatt, enough to power just 400-900 homes.
Biden’s Green Transition May Usher In More Energy Insecurity. Here’s How
The Biden administration has pushed green energy in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, but has failed to address foreign mining and refining dominance.
dailycaller.com
